


i would give you flowers

by bellafaithy



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), F/M, Love at First Sight, M/M, Omegaverse, Will be adding tags as I go, alpha!hueningkai, because im soft for yeongyu, bff yeonjun/beomgyu, but im also a sucker for yeonkai, cuz tagging is hard T-T, forgive me my writings are rusty, huening is not your usual cute adorable huening in here, omega!yeonjun, please im dying for yeonkai, they are just so ERGH, warned ya, yeonjun's just a little scared
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:27:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23646907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellafaithy/pseuds/bellafaithy
Summary: Someone looms behind him, too close, just shy out of his personal bubble that he could feel it. That familiar aura. He slowly turns around, eyes glassy the moment he locks eyes with those same almond eyes, deep brown orbs staring right into him.“Choi Yeonjun,” he’s never heard someone says his name so gently, like he’s made of glass, as if he would shatter him with a force a tad bit stronger, yet at the same time so determined, wanting to hold him firmly in his own two hands."I found you.”
Relationships: Choi Yeonjun/Huening Kai
Comments: 19
Kudos: 99





	1. neon blue pullover and long-ass hair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> first time seeing someone might not always be remembered vividly but the emotion you felt

Yeonjun had a perfect family, to begin with. Alright, almost. They still have their flaws: like not being there during his most important childhood moments enough that he knows at age 4, not to expect his parents are going to be there for him when he wakes up from a nightmare or a particularly loud thunderstorm that shook up half of the house. They make up for it every chance they got, so Yeonjun doesn’t keep revenge. He savours every bit of hugs and smooches that his parents showered him with, all the presents and time they gave because he knows that’s the only chances he could afford.

Over time, he finds that he matured a tad bit faster than his peers. On the dependency for the family part, noticeably so. He didn’t cry like his classmates when their parents dropped them off on their first day of primary school. At least they had their parents do that. His chauffeur came in as a representation instead, which he doesn’t mind that much. Namjoon could have skipped the sunglasses, though. It makes him seems too intimidating.

He didn’t beg the wardens to let him off the hook and go home during weekends like any other students in boarding school. His parents weren’t there at home, to begin with. He’ll just be spending time watching TV and wandering around in his mother’s garden instead of doing something productive with his teenage time (the woes of being the only child).

He didn’t mind the hundred miles gap from his parents when he received the acceptance letter from T University. His mother had a rather upset look hinting in her eyes and eyebrows, barely concealed by the curls of her hair. His father didn’t do any better, eyes going watery the second Yeonjun said “Oh, okay then” and at that split moment of rareness, Yeonjun was reminded like a punch in the guts that his parents still do love him, even though their effort in presenting him with that isn’t really plausible. He’ll give them A+ for sincerity (C+ for effort).

So, for his first step in college, he is not foreign to the thoughts of self-reliance (if he has the honour of regarding himself with that) on most of the things that were done by his housemaids and findings things out for himself. He is not a stranger to how the world works and he adapts quickly, a trait of his father that his mother often boasts about to this one child of hers.

Easy to say, it doesn’t occur to Yeonjun’s mind that he would have someone to depend on for anything, even on the whereabouts of the lecture’s notes. At least, not in the far future.

Peculiar about this word he’s living in, there is a system established worldwide since the times human beings existed. The Alpha-Beta-Omega system does not leave anyone independent, no matter how long they have lived their life, no matter how close one is to their death, there will come a day where their soul depends on the very existence of a significant other: a soulmate.

“Yeonjun hyung,” Yeonjun’s first instinct when he hears Beomgyu’s mischievous voice drawing close, is to place a palm square on the younger’s face just before he could wrap his entire frame around himself.

“Hands off, kid. I still won’t forgive you for biting me the other day,” he says through gritted teeth. Beomgyu’s pout is dangerous (he’s quoting from Taehyun) but Yeonjun stares at him flatly. “Will it hurt for you to let a dongsaeng shower you with affection?”

“The last time I did, you tainted two of my fingers with your dirty saliva.”

“You were pointing at me!”

“It was a peace sign!”

Yeonjun, despite his reluctance on relying on others for the sake of his own entertainment, he had unexpectedly found himself sought after by two of his classmates, Beomgyu and Soobin, more often than he could count in the last few months. By now, the thoughts of them calling him “Yeonjun, my man!” out loud from 10 meters away doesn’t reel him backwards anymore.

He still needs to have that fixed, though. Maybe he should make a run for it every time they see him outside of class before Beomgyu gets nasty stares for being so effing obnoxious and calling him out without honorifics.

“I really would rather have you control yourself more, Beomgyu. What would your girlfriend thinks if you come to her smelling like one of your unmated friends?” they are waiting for the class to clear out after the morning lecture ended, still too sleepy to squeeze through the sea that is his 80 classmates flooding out of the room when he could be out in a matter of minutes later.

“Then she’s got to understand that I am a very affectionate friend that needs to shower his lonely unaffectionate friend with love. I give her kisses all the time,” sensing that the older is sleepy beyond his own comprehension, Beomgyu drags him up the stairs of the lecture hall by the hem of his hoodie, Yeonjun still having his eyes half-closed.

Biochemistry really do just suck out the very life out of him even a quarter through lecture. He doesn’t know how he’ll survive for the half of the semester. “Besides, she adores you beyond belief. She won’t mind that, especially since you still haven’t presented yet,” ah, that also. The thing about Yeonjun’s condition. There have been numerous cases where one’s status is presented behind schedule, when it should have during their 18th birthday, by the time the clock strikes 12 midnight. It’s usually different for everyone how it occurs, whether it is the experience, the changes of appearance by the time morning comes, behavioural adjustments., or the general time itself. Changes according just to their newly acquired status.

Strangely for Yeonjun, right at his 18th birthday, even the morning after, nothing changes. Not even in his appearance. All is very much the same thing. His scent is still the same soft mellow dew, his hair still the same slick black, his attitude couldn’t be said any better. The doctor had come up with ‘late presenter’, because his hormones were all over the places, his growth not blooming where the starting points should have been, his mind and body not really coming to senses about this system that encompasses the entire world.  
He sensed back then how disappointed his parents were, since both were Alphas of a rather highly looked-upon ranks, both respected and respectful for what they are and do. He supposed they had some expectations from him because of this. Regardless, they didn’t comment any further, just gave him a wistful and a soft “When it happens, you’ll know. We can’t tell you exactly how it feels because that’s for you to find out. But whatever happens, you’re still our son. Always been no matter who you are.”

(He might have burst a big fat tear or two when he got up to his bedroom that very night they told him that, but whatever.)

He’s 21, now. It’s been 3 whole years yet nothing takes place, for whatever it’s worth. Yeonjun gets tired of waiting and he’s probably forgotten about it until Beomgyu reminded him of it just now. A frown quickly settles on his forehead, a kind of feeling he could not makes senses of washing over his head and Beomgyu, quickly catching on the shift to his scent, whips his head around, mouth agape.

“Ah, hyung. I didn’t mean—” he’s quick to apologize, guilt pouring over his face but Yeonjun dismisses it. “It’s nothing. If something like this upsets me, then I should have gotten a lover sooner.”

“But…” Yeonjun stares at the younger, disliking the unusual look of dejection adorning him because of this supposedly-sensitive matter. Being a late presenter is one thing. Not having a soulmate is another. One thing led to another. It’s not uncommon, but the thoughts, this anecdote has become a significant doctrine enough that seeing one in a daily basis is bizarre. Especially coming from someone like him.

Someone like Choi Yeonjun who is expected to hold the Alpha tittle during his first year in college, whispered about even among his own peers and seniors. An expectation he couldn’t say he never saw coming but still. 

It’s annoying, at some point.

“If you’re so guilty about it, buy me butter biscuits,” Yeonjun pushes at Beomgyu’s back to get him walking up, eager to get this topic somewhere else. “But it’s the only thing you get whenever I’m treating you.”

“Then would you have rather me ask you for 4th grade grilled meat?”

Before Beomgyu could slam the door open because of how Yeonjun tries to push him hastily, something smacks at the door from outside at Beomgyu’s force and they both gasp aloud, a few seconds of freezing in their spots ensues, scrambling to pull the door back in once they've gained their senses and peeking their heads out to see if they had slammed the door on someone’s face.

A guy holds the door with the back of his forearm, long fringes curtaining sharp slanted eyes as they eye the both of them. He looks surprised. Beomgyu shrieks in mortification. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, man! Are you hurt?” they get out, the guy withdrawing his arm away before Beomgyu could take a hold of it with a smile on his face, soft.

“Nothing. It’s okay, no one’s hurt,” Yeonjun doesn’t know whether he’s more distracted by the bright neon blue pullover this guy is wearing or the fricking long hair he’s got hanging shyly over the apples of his cheeks.

“But maybe you could open the door more gently the next time? In case,” the guy grins rather sheepishly despite the advice given, Beomgyu laughing in return to cover his own embarrassment. “Sorry, my friend was in a hurry and made me do it.”

Yeonjun gives him a disbelieving eye. “Are you seriously putting this on me now?”

The guy, lips thin and eyes still hidden behind his curtain bangs, cracks a final smile to them before going his merry way, Beomgyu and Yeonjun both reeling back at the pungent scent trailing from his back.

“Hoeee, his scent,” Beomgyu slaps at the air in front of his face like the scent had just manifested themselves into tiny annoying flies. Yeonjun scrunches his nose, mind blank from the slightly powering tinge. “It’s even stronger than my always self-asserting uncle.”

“Who do you think that was?”

“Don’t know?” Beomgyu shrugs, opening his arms wide happily when Yeonjun prods at his arms, wrapping his arms around the older tight so that he could snuggle up all the scent Beomgyu gives out as much as he could. 

It’s always like this. Even though Beomgyu is a beta, Yeonjun would always come find him whenever someone had come too close into his personal bubble, or when someone’s scent had deterred him a bit too much out of his own conscience, relishing in the familiarity and comfort only Beomgyu could afford him with.

“But that is a one, big Alpha,” Beomgyu comments, rubbing at Yeonjun’s shoulder blades like how he likes it. Yeonjun presses his face into his shoulder, ignoring the curious eyes passing by them. “What makes you think that?”

“Well, just. You just kinda know when someone is at a whole another level than you. Besides, who could have exude such aura if not a powerful Alpha?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ohohOHOH me First time writing chaptered fIcSSSSSSS xDDDDD


	2. this is hueningkai

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> fate has a cheating way of reminding him that he's not supposed to be alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> psstt! hey! can 18/5 be any faster asgdhfjgklgh

His name is Huening Kamal Kai, but prefers himself to be referred as Hueningkai. How that information flies into Yeonjun’s mind is a pure coincidence. The whispers of his significance had been running around for quite some time, now that Yeonjun had seen him in the flesh first-handedly. The description had fitted him so accurately that it didn’t need Yeonjun a second clarification that they were talking about that man with hair too long for his face and has a knack for wearing bold colours to class.

He’s a junior in the Engineering faculty, but because of technical issues and possible late online class registration, he had to come over to Yeonjun’s Biomedical Science Faculty to take an advanced English class required by the university for graduation. He was one of the very few, but rose to attention because someone had caught wind of his prestige.

A young Alpha of two great names, apparently.

“I wonder,” Beomgyu starts just as Yeonjun had finished the entire bowl of mash potatoes, scraping the last bit with his spoon, scowling at the lack of gravy left. “You eat so well and stuff yourself like crazy every time we eat yet I never see you gaining more than 65.”

“An overstatement,” Yeonjun raises a spoon towards his face with a raised eyebrow, cheeks full and resembling so much like a caught off-guarded squirrel. “I only eat twice a day and I dance. You’re making me sound like I don’t put any effort in keeping my shape.”

“Yea, I know, but—” Beomgyu’s train of thoughts is interrupted by the bandage wrapped around Yeonjun’s thumb and forefinger. Yeonjun senses the abrupt stop to his rambling, looking up from his heaping number of wrappers. “What? Want wrappers?”

“Nah. Just remembered that you don’t stop bleeding easily.”

“That’s random,” Yeonjun huffs, putting chicken pieces into layers of veggies. “Must be because of these cuts, huh?”

“Have you been taking your supplements lately?”

“Of course I do. It helps after a few months but it’s still better for me to press any fresh cuts to ice blocks or anything alike. Oh, yeah! A roach came flying through the window last night when I was studying. Scared the shit outta me so much I hit the table with my knee,” Yeonjun cackles, Beomgyu grins in amusement. “Really? Was Hoseok hyung there?”

“Yup. Almost pissed himself though because that horrific creature went flying up to his head. You should have seen his face! Oh my god, we looked so stupid—”

Bursting out loud, they are made conscious of their own din when Yeonjun notices glares from other customers, hiding his giggles behind his wrappers, Beomgyu clearing his throat from the attention and pretends to look elsewhere. Just then, his eyes catch on something behind Yeonjun’s head.

“Hey, don’t look back but there’s that door kid,” Beomgyu murmurs on his straw, loudly sipping on the last bit of the orange juice left in his glass. “What door kid?” Yeonjun is in the middle of biting into his tuna sandwiches when Beomgyu is not so discreetly staring far beyond Yeonjun’s fluffy puff of hair.

“The one I almost slam the door on his face—wait don’t turn—” Yeonjun goes ahead and bodily twists around to see behind him. Beomgyu squeezes his own chin with his grease-stained hand, giving up. “Why do I even bother.”

Yeonjun narrows his eyes ahead, cursing himself for not wearing contacts and not bringing his glasses today because damn Beomgyu and his on-time-full-attendance ass dragging him out of bed half an hour before their 8 a.m. class.

But he sees him: Hueningkai. Looking a bit out of place there with his timid approach to the counter with a tray of food in his hands. Probably still not used to the cafe's workers. Wow, he looks even more of a giant from where they both are seated at.

Boy, does he look hungry with how loaded his tray is. Yeonjun side-eyes his own tray of empty bowls and plates, scraped clear of food to the bottom.

Hmm, maybe he should cut down the amount of food he’s eating.

“He seriously looks like that teenager that you often see in movie where they go to bed in rainbow onesies and could go to class with neon orange shorts without a care in the world,” Beomgyu comments. Yeonjun nods, still taken aback at the blue pullover Hueningkai is sporting on. “Except, he’s 6 feet tall and ain’t a teenage baby.”

“I bet he’s those basics-go-to style. This is the second time we’ve seen him in pullovers,” Yeonjun pulls his eyes away after a long scrutinizing session, worrying if the very man they’re talking about would see them analysing him like most other people do.

“You mean it’s the second time we’ve ever seen him.”

“Touché.”

It’s been a week or so, the first time they bumped into him, so Yeonjun doesn’t think much and figures Hueningkai doesn’t remember them, wouldn’t even recall the almost-accident. Yet when Beomgyu is babbling something about Stella’s habit of picking on the tip of her fingernails with her teeth, Hueningkai walks past them besides the long table of assorted foods and like a gravity pull, Yeonjun’s eyes follows his trail, and somewhere along the way, Hueningkai’s find his, holding Yeonjun’s gaze in his for this fleeting moment of time freeze, before the other pulls his gaze away and sits among his own group of friends.

“…might as well put duct tapes all over her fingers just so she would feel all grossed out by the thoughts of it. Yeonjun, are you with me?” Yeonjun blinks, eyes focusing on Beomgyu’s hand waving at his face.

“Huh?”

“Were you brooding?”

Yeonjun sneaks a glance at the back of Hueningkai’s head, the guy grinning at one of his friend’s jokes, and thinks the moment from before was just a mind trick of his own. He looks straight at Beomgyu’s dubious face with face as blank as a sheet. “If you use duct tape on her, she’s gonna think you’re into some real kinky shit and a possible voyeur.”

Beomgyu squawks.

Yeonjun doesn’t want to admit it, but the universe has kind of a twisted way of playing with his head. He keeps seeing the Alpha kid everywhere.

Literally. Everywhere.

One moment he was going through some of the books in the library for his Microbiology class, skimming his fingers through the smooth surface of the pages of a reference book, raising his face from it upon the sounds of footsteps reaching the row he was in, and there he was.

Yeonjun smelt him first before seeing him, a muted breeze of something soft, unidentifiable at the lieu of the moment. He looked up just in time to see Hueningkai disappearing into the next row, followed by another guy, chatting in a hushed manner as to be expected in a library.

He didn’t know what to think of it, the fact that something knocked on the door of his heart. A feeling akin to that occurring right at the sight of the Alpha, rendering him a little breathless.

Hueningkai’s scent lingered at the front of the row, so he dodged it by exiting the other way around.

Food had been a staple prominent luxury in life that Yeonjun had concluded the only thing that serve him just right. Give him something as mere as jjigae, you can bet his day had just got better. Any food would have worked the same.

Now, staring blankly at the packaged spicy bun stuffed in his backpack underbelly, his stomach churned uncomfortably, rebelling at his thoughts of stuffing himself with it to keep himself awake throughout the evening lecture.

He cleared his throat, snapped his backpack closed and glanced towards his side. Beomgyu's got his eyes wide opened with resolve, teary at the edges from trying to stay awake so hard. Soobin's already given up halfway through, burying his chin in his palms with his eyes closed. He's probably dozed off to wonderland already.

Letting out a discreet sigh, he looked ahead. Mr. Min pulled up the last bits of his slides after mentioning a possible second test the next week, eliciting a collective whining from the students. 

_Is it because tests are stressing me out?_ He thought it over, how his appetite was decreasing with an unusual pace. Just two weeks ago, he had cleared clean a meal fit for two people by himself and still hungry for half a foot subway. He couldn't even properly finish a bowl of chicken soup last night.

"I. Am. Starving. You have no idea," Beomgyu started as soon as they're released from the depth of hell (it was just Biochemistry lecture), dragging a mentally wounded Yeonjun along with Soobin in tow.

"You keep saying that, but we're the ones who's gonna end up finishing your food," Soobin complaint, Yeonjun groaning into his shoulder at the bright sunlight blaring lasers down onto their faces. "Holy shit, why didn't I bring my sunglasses today."

"That's why I always bring you guys out to eat. Be grateful," Beomgyu scrolled down the list of menu of a restaurant in his phone, hooking Yeonjun's arm around the junction of his elbow.

"Hey, you guys up for hot wings? There's a new restaurant that had just opened up last month and I've been eyeing it ever since. Got a good review on Yelp, too."

"Sure," Yeonjun's meek reply. Beomgyu glanced at him, noticing the weariness hanging underneath his eyes and lips. "Why, hyung? Do you wanna eat something else?"

"No. Wings sounds great," Yeonjun tried to sound convincing, but Beomgyu and Soobin had stopped dead on their track, taking a good intense look of him and he knew he's at loss.

"What's wrong, hyung? You're always excited about trying something new to eat. Are you tired?" Beomgyu asked, eyebrows crooked. Yeonjun shook his head, opening his mouth to speak but Soobin had his fingers carding through his bangs, and the relief having washed over him almost instantly at the mere touch showed starkly on his face.

"You're not well," Soobin concluded. "Something's bothering you. What is it, hyung?"

"Nothing. I think it's because the lecture worn me out too much," Yeonjun forced out a laugh, just so that these two don't worry too much. He led them towards the stairs leading down to the parking lot where Beomgyu had his Fiat parked. "But I would really love some nice spicy chicken. Treat me to beer too, Beomgyu!"

"Why are you always asking me to treat you? Aren't you two the elders here?" Beomgyu accused with his finger wildly pointing towards their noses. Soobin tried biting on it for good measure and got a good screech coming from him, Yeonjun bellowing out loud at the sight. When they rounded up the corner, though, a familiar head of wavy curls and pointy nose had him almost staggering down the stairs, Soobin yelling out as he quickly grabbed at the back of his cardigan, Yeonjun hanging mid-air from kissing the ground flat.

"Wah! Hyung, watch your steps-"

"Oh my god, I forgot my bag!" Yeonjun had instinctively shouted back, scrambling and flailing his hands around for purchase as Soobin pulled him up. 

Hueningkai gawked up at them from the bottom of the stairs, bewildered at Yeonjun's hurry in speeding away from the two.

"What bag? You're wearing it right now!"

"Book! I meant my book!" Yeonjun threw over his shoulders as he sprinted towards the general direction of the lecture hall, not daring to look back at where Hueningkai was still standing dumbfounded, possibly staring at his back.

Later that night, Beomgyu got a him a takeout for a late night snack because he didn't finish his own meal. The hot wings sat there on his study table untouched for a good two hours before he offered them to his housemates.

“Taehyun-ah!” someone had knocked (banged) on the front door of the living room with a force usually reserved for an angry girlfriend to a cheating boyfriend scenario. “Taehyun-ahhhhhh!! I know you’re in there!”

Yeonjun timidly opened the door to see Na Jaemin standing in front of it, a huge fishy grin spreading over his face at the sight of the blue-haired male.

“Yeonjun-ah!” Yeonjun deliberately squeaked the moment Jaemin attacked him with a bear hug, swaying them side to side like an excited child. “I haven’t seen you in a while! How’re you doing, love?”

“You guys are the one too busy to hang out with me,” Yeonjun chastised, already used to Jaemin’s nonchalant pet calling. Jaemin had a flair of calling basically every single human on earth he stumbled upon on with ‘honey’, ‘darling’ or ‘love’. There had been times where this habit of his almost caused himself a mild concussion or a broken leg inflicted by some very jealous mates, but he never really learns from it. So.

“Well, we're kinda pressed with the mid-sem events, tests and all,” Jaemin pouted, cocking his head to the side. “Let’s go out at the end of this month, then? We’re totally done with everything by then.”

“You want to? Sure. Let me see if I'm free first, then I'll holler you,” he twisted around, hand still on the knob of the door. “Taehyun! Nana’s here!”

“Didn’t even inform he was coming!” Taehyun shouted somewhere from inside of the bathroom. “Let him inside, hyung.”

“Are you pooping?” Jaemin hollered, bending down to scratch at his kneecap.

“Bitch, I’m showering!”

Jaemin cackled, exchanging mischievous looks with Yeonjun. “Come in. He’ll finish in a few minutes. Where are you guys heading?”

“To the office. Grab some stuff for practice and then to the court. Nah, nah. I’ll wait here. My teammate’s stopping by here in a few, so,” Jaemin leaned over the door frame. Yeonjun nodded, looking apologetic.

“And here I am complaining about my tight schedule and dance practices—”

“Jaemin!” Taehyun burst out of the bathroom, desperately trying to hook the towel around his waist while furiously wiping another one over his wet hair. “You couldn’t even bother texting me first before coming here? Stay there and don’t touch anything.”

“Why even bother showering before practicing, anyway? You sweat a river every time!” Jaemin shot back.

“It helps me sleep at night, okay? I’m changing.”

Squabbling with Taehyun is not uncommon, especially when it concerns the people close to him like his teammates, Beomgyu and Yeonjun. But he sees this often exchanging between Taehyun and Jaemin, particularly. It’s all harmless play and quarreling until one of them tackles the other into an aggressive affectionate hugs and smooches (Jaemin) and the other retaliates with a (kind of fatal) chock-hold (Taehyun).

“Were you guys discussing something just now, or were you just hanging out?”

“Eating. I bought a bunch of spicy tteobokki that I couldn’t even finish half of them...” Jaemin snapped his head towards his back in alarm, sniffing something in the air with a frown. Yeonjun clamped his mouth shut, the scent familiar to his memory. But there was a tinge of bitterness to it, concentrated. Like burnt woods.

“Ouf, someone’s mad,” Jaemin commented with a pout. Right, Jaemin’s an Alpha. He could have smelt an angry Alpha ten metres away. As in cue, Hueningkai emerged from the corridor, hair now a soft wave over his eyes and dressed in loose black tee and sweatpants, a look that Yeonjun had never seen on him before.

He looked as if someone had managed to get on his nerve right before arriving here, annoyance lining the lines of his shoulders and the outlines of his eyes.

“Yo, Hueningkai-ah. Who pissed you off?” Jaemin made a show of swatting at the air in front of his face as soon as Hueningkai came closer, the younger clicking his tongue before practically shoving his wrist into Jaemin’s face, the other screaming bloody murder at the assault.

“I saw someone kicking a stray cat off the sidewalk like it was trash just now so I kind off—” Hueningkai trailed off after his eyes locked with Yeonjun’s wide ones, recognition bleeding into his eyes, Yeonjun’s tongue running dry.

“…whipped him a good…beating.”

“Okay, I’m done. Let’s go,” Taehyun barged out of his room just in time to see the solid silence sitting in the living room with the three of them, Jaemin switching his stare from Yeonjun to Hueningkai back and forth, the two having an awkward silent eye contest.

“Oh, Huening. You’re here,” Taehyun picked his training shoes off the shoe rack, a duffel bag sliding down his shoulder as he put on his sneakers. “Hyung, we’re off now. If you can’t finish the food, just leave it on the table. They’ll be gone when my housemates come home.”

“Yea, yea, sure,” Yeonjun answered, quickly diverting his stare to Taehyun. Taehyun noticed the curiosity hanging over Hueningkai’s head like a mini light bulb, guessing that the other might wonder who Yeonjun is, so he introduced.

“Ah, you both haven’t met yet. This is Hueningkai, our newest team addition. He’s replacing Mingyu after he got out,” Yeonjun nodded, lips parted. “Huening, Yeonjun hyung. My friend slash freeloader.”

“Hey!”

“Bye!” Jaemin pulled him in for a quick hug before placing a loud peck on his temple, Yeonjun retaliating by swatting at his biceps before he managed to skit away.

The face Hueningkai pulled on at the sight had Jaemin cackling and Taehyun rolling his eyes. “He’s always like that. You’ll get used to it. You might even find yourself getting the same thing after this—”

And off they went for their basketball practice, leaving Yeonjun reeling in his wake, warmth slowly climbing up his skin like ants, prickly uncomfortable.

For someone who’s only been at the Health Science and Medicine faculty just for a mere English class, Hueningkai is progressively making a solid presence in his mind without them knowing each other anymore than names.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in the end, i had to divide some parts and extend the chapters because i didn't realized it was EFFIN LONG holy molly   
> don't worry, it's not gonna be that long i promise. i dont intend on making more than 5 chapters yehet  
> also, did i mention this was kinda slow-burn? i thought this was slow burn, but i don't think it is for others?  
> anyways, thank you for the comments! they made my day haha! i've improved the plot a bit by how you guys thought of it. enjoy!


	3. i keep seeing you everywhere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “AHAHAHAHAHA—oh shit my guts—”
> 
> “Stop laughing! Oh my god, I’m so embarrassed—”
> 
> Yeonjun is torn between laughing along or crying in mortification, but is too distracted by how pink Hueningkai’s face has gotten from all that crowing and running around the court before fishing him out of the drain. His curtain hair sticks to his forehead and skin like glue and it’s so tousled in a way that Yeonjun has never perceived someone so damn attractive as he is now.

Culture Cells doesn’t start in half an hour and yet Yeonjun’s already feeling sleepy from having just spicy buns for breakfast. Beomgyu senses this with a sharp narrow to his eyes and a gentle whack to the back of his neck with the rolled-up lecture notes Beomgyu usually has present in his tote bag.

“I know that face. That’s what you get for skipping breakfast, hyung. Thank goodness I had spare buns with me or you would be starving halfway through lecture,” Beomgyu reprimands, fixing the glasses on the bridge of his nose with the kind of air that Yeonjun usually associates with his mom after a scolding session.

“Don’t sleep on me, hyung. You’ve missed this class twice already. And it’s already been just 2 _months_ since the semester started.”

“I know, I know. Jeez,” Yeonjun rubs at his face with his sweater paws, curling into himself at the table both he and Beomgyu are occupying. Weak at the sight of anything resembling cuteness, Beomgyu secretly coos at him, stroking the top of his hair.

“Do you have any sweets with you now?”

“No, just ran out of them. I’m getting them this evening,” Beomgyu says, mindlessly flipping through the new lecture notes their doctor uploaded right in the middle of last night.

“You’re going to the convenience store?”

“Yep. Wanna come?”

“Nah. Don’t wanna accidentally third wheel you and Stella again.”

“I didn’t say we wer—” at the very pointed look Yeonjun’s giving at him from the table, Beomgyu shuts up like a chastised child.

“I wasn’t gonna bring it up, but I’m saying it again. Every time you two bump into each other it’s like I just ceased to exist. That is something I hope you would experience later, too. Preferably sooner,” he wishes darkly, cheek mushed against the cold table.

“I’m sorry? I’m couldn’t help it!” Beomgyu whisper-hisses, throwing his hands up in the air in embarrassment. “It’s like, my field of vision just kind of narrows itself down to a one single hollow road towards her whenever I see or smell her within 5 metres radar.”

Yeonjun meant it to be a mock sulking just now but Beomgyu has a flair of being dramatic whenever his soulmate, Stella, is brought into picture, whether it’s on purpose or not. So he guesses mourning over the fact that he’s sharing his best friend with his soulmate is for another episode.

Yeonjun’s curious, though. They met a year before and by then, Beomgyu has been with Stella for a good two and a half, having bumped into each other on a wet pouring Thursday evening at a bus station.

He’s never seen and known a side of Beomgyu that is a stranger to Stella’s scent and presence in his life, as solid as breathing is to living. He wonders how Beomgyu is before meeting her.

He wonders how someone is before their soulmate comes barrelling their existence into their life.

They stick around for a while after class before Beomgyu goes away to the convenience store and ‘accidentally’ meets up with Stella on the way. Yeonjun doesn’t get why they both don’t set up an automatic time of the day to meet up with instead of just eyeballing it and risk missing each other.

“But that’s just the thing. We never missed,” to which Beomgyu had sagely replied him. He’s got that soft smile on his face again, one that’s usually reserved for one person only. “I think it’s just a soulmate thing. You just know when they’re around you, somewhere, and you’ll find them. You’ll get what I mean.”

Of course Yeonjun doesn’t get what he means but he’ll indulge him. It’s not every day he gets to see the great Stella despite him probably already knowing half of her life from all those My Beloved Juliet Ted Talk Beomgyu has been passionately giving him from the very first time they met.

“Yeonjun hyung!” he’s on his way towards the bus station and passing by the basketball court when someone calls him over. He looks up from his phone, spots Taehyun waving at him from the group of people playing basketball and he waves back with a smile.

“Yah, Taehyun! Looking busy over there!” he yells over.

“For the events, what else?” Taehyun says, small jogs towards him after he says something to his playmates. “Come on and join us! We’re just taking a break. It’s been a while since we’ve seen you shoot some scores.”

“No no, go ahead. I was kidding. I’m on my way back. You’re practicing for the event, right? Go on,” Yeonjun replies, randomly looking over behind Taehyun to briefly go over his teammates. His gaze falls over a particularly tall guy with long wavy hair, and he falters in his step.

He should have expected this, his reaction to the sight of this guy. But he still freaking does it.

Hueningkai’s stare on him is like a hawk preying on rats hiding in the field of corns. Briefly, he feels his stomach gurgling, deep with hunger.

“Hyung, watch out—!” Taehyun’s scream breaks the spell, and Yeonjun snaps his face towards someone speeding in his way in rollerblades, her speed too deadly for just a mere roller-skating in pedestrian walk.

“Oh my god, get out of the way!” the person yells in horror, unable to stop herself.

Yeonjun, mind blank, side steps enough that she winds past him a hair length away from giving him a fractured ribcage and a mild concussion, but instead of stepping on solid ground, his foot plunges right into seemingly an endless hole, falling right into a half a metre-deep drain.

“Holy shit!” someone had shouted. His ears are buzzing.

“Oh my god, Yeonjun hyung!” Taehyun’s voice sounds muffled for some reason, but Yeonjun guesses it’s because of how fast his blood is rushing to his head at the moment. His eyes are blurry from all the tears threatening to spill from his eyes at the burning sensation of his ankle, the back of his head and shoulders, having landing on an awkward position inside the drain with his legs up and neck craned behind his shoulders.

“Hyung, shit—can you get up?” Taehyun peers his face into view, expression stricken with horror.

“I—I can’t…” his head feels numb from colliding with the drain’s wall. He tries to get up, hands scrambling for purchase but his fingers slip from the surface the second he puts pressure on it and he chokes back a sob at the awful pain throbbing at his left ankle and _it hurts so bad_.

He must have twisted it when he slipped.

“Hyung, wait, I’m coming down.”

He doesn’t really register what happens next, but when he opens his eyes back, someone looms over him, completely blocking the sun from down there, a flash of red, and whoever this person is, they had their foot perched firmly besides Yeonjun’s hips and there are hands sneaking underneath his armpits.

“Wait wait _wait—_ ” panicked, Yeonjun’s hands meet skin, hot and damp from sweat. When his fingers cling on the arms, he doesn’t think this person is Taehyun.

“Shh, it’s okay,” this voice, deep and assuring, is definitely not Taehyun’s. Briefly, Yeonjun inhales air scented with citrus, having spiked in worry of Yeonjun’s condition. “I’m pulling you up, okay?”

“1, 2,…!”

The yelp he lets out when he is hefted up in a one smooth motion might suggests that he couldn’t handle a mere dislocation, but jokes and embarrassments aside, he hasn’t had an ankle dislocated ever since he slacked on dancing and his ankle feels like it’s trying to murder him with a second degree homicide.

More hands reach out to grab him out of the drain, lifting his legs out with more care at the sharp hisses he gives. Taehyun slides into view but all that Yeonjun could make out is a blurry outline of his facial features from all the tears.

“Hyung, are you okay? Where does it hurt?” he’s rocking himself while clutching at the sore leg, too scared to feel his ankle.

He tries standing up, slowly, but standing feels like shoving hot rods up from the joints of his ankle through the bones of his calf and knee, and he lets out a teary yelp, falling with a grace of a flailing goose into Taehyun’s arms.

“Shit…” he bites his lips, hard, hot tears spilling out from his eyes like a river and Taehyun looks so guilty and worried that he himself might cry at the sight of his helpless hyung. “Fuck, it _hurts_.”

The whole situation had managed to garner some of passer-bys’ attentions to come check him over, and Yeonjun’s cleared his mind enough to feel embarrassed by the people gathering around him, despite the overwhelming pain.

He’s sure his ankle is going to swell its way out that his shoes won’t even fit by tonight.

“Taehyun, it’s fine,” he tries to console a now panicky Taehyun, who’s checking every inch of his body and legs, placing a hand on his shoulder meant to be reassuring. He’s the one with a dislocated ankle and scarred pride here, but Taehyun looks ready to cry in his behalf so he’s not sure if the kid wants that to be witnessed by his groupmates. “I just need to—ah! YAH.”

Taehyun flinches when Yeonjun swats at his hand, trying to test press the swelling flesh of his twisted ankle.

“I’m sorry! I just need to see how bad it is,” Taehyun’s hands shoot up in the air in defence, Yeonjun throwing a teary glare at him as he covers his hands over his leg, pout trembling. Somehow, this scene suddenly looks ridiculous and so random that Taehyun’s lips betray his emotion and cracks a smile.

Upon seeing it, Yeonjun cracks up, feeling silly, and they both explodes in a boisterous laugh, mostly on Yeonjun’s part. Taehyun’s friends look over in confusion but nevertheless, offer their own hands to help but is quickly dismissed by Yeonjun.

“It’s okay, it’s fine! I just need to rest here for a while. Then I’ll go. You guys go ahead,” Yeonjun waves his hands at them. The crowd doesn’t last longer around him before they deemed him well enough on his own before going back to their own business (much to Yeonjun’s relief), Taehyun telling him to call him up if it hurts too much to go back on his own.

There’s someone still hanging around him after Taehyun joined his crowd, like a presence of an unknown entity in the corner of a dark room. Yeonjun looks up from his side to a familiar face, staring down at him with sharp eyes, startling Yeonjun.

“Hey! Didn’t see you there,” Yeonjun blinks, heart thumping rather hard for a split second.

“Huening! Are you coming?” Taehyun shouts across the court. Hueningkai flashes him a smile and waves. “You guys go on! I’m taking a break.”

Briefly, Yeonjun registers the bright red pullover Hueningkai has over his broad frame, his back drenched with sweat, and it takes him a good minute and for Hueningkai to properly settles down beside him over the drain for it to click in his head that it was this kid who had just pulled him out of the godforsaken drain.

Hueningkai tosses his gaze to the side and is met with a hyperventilating, blushed to the tips of the ears Yeonjun burying his face in his palm.

“Er—hey, what’s wrong? Does it hurt so bad?”

“I don’t know which one am I supposed to be more pained for. My ankle, or my pride as a man.”

There’s something oddly comical and hilarious about this whole situation, coupled with the previous incidence where Beomgyu almost slams the door to his face, that has Hueningkai bursting out loud, startling Yeonjun out of his skin.

“AHAHAHAHAHA—oh shit my guts—”

“Stop laughing! Oh my god, I’m so _embarrassed—_ ”

Yeonjun is torn between laughing along or crying in mortification, but is too distracted by how pink Hueningkai’s face has gotten from all that crowing and running around the court before fishing him out of the drain. His curtain hair sticks to his forehead and skin like glue and it’s so tousled in a way that Yeonjun has never perceived someone so damn attractive as he is now.

“You were—you were…! Okay, okay. It was a pretty nasty fall. You had your back all wrong. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have laughed,” Hueningkai purses his lips tight at the glare Yeonjun throws at him.

“I swear Taehyun would never let me live this down.”

The mirth still glimmers bright in his eyes but at least he’s guilty enough to indulge in Yeonjun’s chagrin, so he’s not _that_ mad.

Silence lasts a heartbeat longer in the air before Hueningkai turns to him again, his smile prominent in his face. “How about we start this over again? Hi, I’m Hueningkai,” he introduces himself, painfully obvious in his act of holding back a grin.

Yeonjun fights back an eye roll. “Yeonjun,” he offers his hand though, to which Hueningkai accepts with a firm clutch of his own. Upon the touch, something hot sizzles from his tailbone, up through the bones of his spine and to the top of his neck, and Yeonjun tenses up at his own reaction.

Fortunately, Hueningkai pulls away before he could catch on and Yeonjun briefly clutches the back of his neck as he looks away, chest tightening.

What the hell was that?

“Why is it that I’m always presenting myself wrongly every time we met?” Yeonjun starts off with a pout. Despite the initial confusion over the way his body responded to Hueningkai, he’s still very much a social butterfly, always giving off a pleasant friendly presence to people around him, making them feel comfortable and eased enough to open up to him.

Like a wide opened field of lavenders, Beomgyu had once drunkenly said he smelled like after a particularly ravishing drinking spree in one cold fall night.

“Maybe that’s just me,” Hueningkai says, cheeky for someone who they’ve only just met for 2 minutes. “I’ve been told I’m quite intimidating when I’m left alone.”

“Or maybe you just bring bad luck,” Yeonjun attempts.

Hueningkai shoots him a scandalized look. “Hey!”

“I seriously thought you were Taehyun who lifted me out just now, okay? That would have been better,” Yeonjun says solemnly.

“You’re saying that tiny guy could lift someone twice his size up from a deep drain like that?”

“He’s strong enough that he could throw Beomgyu around like a twig in pillow fights,” Yeonjun deadpans. Hueningkai nods along playfully. “And I assume you remember who Beomgyu is.”

“The guy with you at the lecture hall, right?”

“Him, alright.”

“How’s your leg, though?” Yeonjun inspects his injured ankle, not trying to twist them in any way in fear of worsening it. The pain is a dull throb now, like it has its own beating little heart. The muscles around the ankle are already starting to swell.

“It’ll live,” Yeonjun sighs, running his fingers gently over the tender skin. “I just need to worry about how I need to go home.”

“You run about by bus?”

“I have a bike, but I came here today by bus because I figured I would be too tired to drive after practice today. Go figure.”

Hueningkai buries his cheek in his palm. “I could send you back, then.”

Yeonjun snaps his head towards him, eyebrows shot up. “Huh? You got a ride?”

Hueningkai nods, biting the insides of his cheek. “Yea. A car. It’s parked just beside the faculty. I could send you back when the guys are done.”

Pursing his lips, Yeonjun contemplates on saying yea, sure, thanks! but second guesses it.

“Eh, no. No, it’s okay. I could manage,” Yeonjun blurts out instead. He’s already embarrassed himself in front of a whole crowd and Taehyun’s friends. Troubling them for his own carelessness is going to make it harder for him to show his face to them afterwards.

“I don’t want to burden you.”

Hueningkai straightens his back, puffing his cheeks like he’s considering his words. “Well, you would be doing me a favour, actually,” Yeonjun stares at him, bemused. Hueningkai scratches at his sideburn, awkwardness lining the outlines of his face and shoulders. “I’ve seen you everywhere.”

Yeonjun blinks. Eh?

Clearing his throat, Hueningkai reiterates. “I keep seeing you everywhere, if you understand. What I’m saying.”

He glances from underneath his jet-black locks, gauging Yeonjun’s reaction. Except, Yeonjun just looks confused by where this conversation is going, and a little bit of something else. He takes that as a good sign to continue, though.

“Did you, not notice? Anything? Ever since we met at the lecture hall.”

Yeonjun did. Beomgyu keeps complaining that Yeonjun’s trying to tempt him into buying him ice cream because his pheromone is twice stronger than usual. Yeonjun’s appetite has been decreasing for the past few weeks. He can’t stand the scent of an Alpha a mere 5 feet away from him when before, he could shrug off the pheromones coming from 3 Alphas combined like slapping away fruit flies. He keeps jolting awake in the middle of the night with cold sweat drenching the back of his shirt and collarbones.

“No,” a lie. “Why? Something happened? That sounds…” _alarming._

Hueningkai blows away some strands of his locks from poking into his eyes. Yeonjun sees a flash of his eyes, a deep shade of brown. Expresso brown, is what Beomgyu would describe it as. Pretty.

“Your scent. It’s been bothering me since then,” something gnaws at the bottom of his heart, momentarily rendering him breathless. He knows where this conversation is going to. “Not in the bad way! It’s just, it lingers in the back of my head.”

“Oh,” Yeonjun heart goes _thud_.

“I don’t know bout’ that,” he tries to smile, but he bets it looks more solemn than gentle. “I don’t think you noticed, but I’m a late presenter.”

“Oh. Seriously?”

“Seriously,” he throws his gaze towards the group playing, not wanting to see Hueningkai’s reaction, Taehyun already aiming to shoot the ball with his knees slightly bent, until someone slaps the ball sideways from his two hands and pisses him off enough that he yells out a “Fuck you Jaemin come back here!”.

“I’m a second year but I haven’t shown any signs of presenting,” that’s half a lie, but also half true. He hasn’t seen the doctor regarding his status for a while now, so he’s not sure if that has changed significantly. “Why? Does my scent smell familiar to you?”

The silence between them, and the way Hueningkai is staring into his eyes, as if he’s turning the pages of Yeonjun’s book that is his mind one by one, reading him down intensely, unsettles him in a way that doesn’t creep him out, but something deeper.

Intimate? Confusion? Hope?

“No. Just, my first time smelling that kind of scent,” the other replies.

“How is it? Is it earthy? Musky? Beomgyu’s always said I smelt like I had just rolled around in the garden, though he probably was being a meanie, implying that I was a _dog_ —” Hueningkai leans forward on his arm perched straight behind Yeonjun, slightly disturbing the surface of his privacy bubble, taking a deep whiff of Yeonjun’s shoulder.

He pulls away as quickly as he had gone for it, scrunching his nose like a bee had just landed on it. Yeonjun gapes slightly. “I’m not sure. It’s muted now. But, soft. Like,” he looks up, deep in thoughts. “Flowers. Flowers?”

“Flowers,” Yeonjun repeats.

“I think. But, you mentioned you’re a late-presenter. If I could smell you already, doesn’t that mean—”

The cogs clear up in his head, Yeonjun already zoning out of what he’s talking about. Finally, all things are adding up. His weird cycles, odd behaviour, mood swings, dwindling appetite. His pheromones coming out stronger than what a late-presenter is not supposed to be capable of emitting.

Is it time?

The blush rising high from his cheekbones, down to the collarbones has Hueningkai clamping his mouth shut, hands jerking forward to check up on him. “Wait what’s wrong—”

“I have to go,” Yeonjun bursts out, startling him. He shoots up straight on his leg, completely forgetting the sprain he just took, and curses out loud at the pain shooting up from his ankle. Hueningkai winches. “I forgot I had something…to do.”

“But you’re still hurt. Let me help you.”

“It’s okay, I got this,” resisting with a steel will, he picks up his stuffs that had managed to spill out of his backpack upon his fall, Hueningkai helping him also with the tid-bits of chocolate wrappers and erasers.

“Yeonjun, let me help—” but Yeonjun’s already limping his way, awkward and flimsy on his feet, quite fast for someone who had just twisted his ankle 90 degrees.

“Huening! What the hell is hyung doing walking like that with an injured leg?” Taehyun yells out of worry, jogging up towards Hueningkai who’s already on his feet, staring after the other silently.

He doesn’t answer right away, the intensity in his eyes that follows Yeonjun’s trail bewildering Taehyun.

“He said he has something to do,” he mutters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PUMA is so damn gorgeous and dark and most probably everything that i ever wanted to see them in. like, don't u think you even make a story out of it? what with the cages and chains and HOLY shit BEOMGYU AND SOOBIN SNIFFING ON MEAT WTAF i did not see that one coming i need water


End file.
